Order entered January 30, 2017

In The 

## Court of Appeals **Fifth District of Texas at Dallas**
No. 05-16-01392-CV IN THE INTEREST OF C.E.C., A MINOR CHILD

On Appeal from the 255th Judicial District Court Dallas County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. DF-08-10464 

### ORDER This is an accelerated appeal from an order terminating pro se appellant’s parental rights to his child C.E.C. See T EX
. R. A PP
. P. 28.4. The clerk’s record and reporter’s record have been filed. Appellant is indigent a nd entitled to proceed without p repayment of costs. See T EX
. R.
A PP
. P. 20.1. Appellant is currently incarcerated. On January 12, 20 17, we notified appellant that his notice of appeal appeared untimely and informed him he could remedy the timeliness problem by filing a motion to extend the time to file his notic e of appeal. On January 25, 2017 appellant filed the following pro se moti ons: (1) motion to ext end time to file his notice of appeal and (2) motion requesting appointment of counsel.
We GRANT appellant’s motion to extend time to file his notice of appeal . Appellant’s pro se notice of appeal filed on November 28, 2016 is considere d timely filed for jurisdictional
purposes.We GRANT appellant’s motion requesting appointment of counsel to the ext ent that we
ORDER the trial court to conduct a hearing WITHIN 15 DAYS of the date of this order to determine whether appellant is entitled to court-appointed coun sel in this appeal. The trial court shall make written findings as to appellant’s request for appoi ntment of counsel. If the trial court finds that appellant is entitled to court-appointed counsel, we ORDER the trial court to appoint an attorney to represent appellan t in this appeal. If the tria l court finds that appellant is not entitled to court-appointed couns el, the trial court shall dete rmine whether appellant will retain counsel to represent him in this appeal and, if so, the name, S tate Bar number, and contact information for retained counsel.
We ORDER Felicia Pitre, Dallas County District Clerk, to transmit to th is Court
WITHIN TWENTY DAYS of the date of this order a supplemental clerk’s record contain ing the trial court’s written fi ndings of fact and any order appoin ting counsel.
We ORDER Joie Rivera, Official Court Reporter for the 255th Judicial Dis trict Court to transmit WITHIN TWENTY DAYS of the date of this order a reporter’s record from the hearing. Texas Rule of Judicial Administration 6.2(a) requires the appel late court to dispose of an appeal from a judgment termina ting parental rights so far as re asonably possible within 180 days after the notice of appeal is file d. In an effort to ensure th is appeal proceeds expeditiously and without undue delay, we ORDER appellant’s brief due WITHIN THIRTY-FIVE DAYS of the date of the trial court’s hearing regarding the appointment of counsel. No motions requesting an extension of time to file appellan t’s brief will be granted abs ent exigent circumstances.We DIRECT the Clerk to send copies of this order to the Honorable Kim Coo ks, Presiding Judge of the 255th Judicial District Court; Ms. Pitre ; Ms. Rivera, and all parties and counsel of record.
We ABATE the appeal to allow the trial c ourt to comply with this order. The appeal will be reinstated WITHIN TWENTY DAYS from the date of this order or when the requested findings are received, whichever occurs sooner. /s/ DAVID L. BRIDGES PRESIDING JUSTICE